US says It will withdraw from UN cultural organization, again

PARIS — The United States said Tuesday it would withdraw from UNESCO, the United Nations cultural agency, the latest move by the Trump administration to cut ties with international organizations.

The decision comes just two years after the United States rejoined the organization and will take effect at the end of 2026. The withdrawal reflects President Donald Trump’s deep mistrust and distaste of multilateralism and international institutions, especially those connected to the United Nations.

“Continued involvement in UNESCO is not in the national interest of the United States,” Tammy Bruce, a State Department spokesperson, said in a statement.

Bruce accused UNESCO of promoting “divisive social and cultural causes” and maintaining an “outsized focus on the U.N.’s Sustainable Development Goals, a globalist, ideological agenda” at odds “with our America First foreign policy.”

Repeating steps taken during his first term, Trump has already pulled the United States out of the World Health Organization and the U.N. Human Rights Council.

Relations between the United States and UNESCO, which stands for United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, have been rocky for years.

The United States cut funding under the Obama administration after UNESCO voted to include Palestine as a full member in 2011, and then pulled out completely during Trump’s first term.

But in 2023, the Biden administration announced it would rejoin and start gradually paying back more than $600 million in arrears. U.S. officials argued then that leaving an empty chair at UNESCO had created a vacuum that competing powers, most notably China, were stepping into.

UNESCO has 194 member states, and its headquarters are in Paris. It is best known for designating World Heritage sites, more than 1,200 of them since the 1970s, including the ruins of Palmyra in Syria, Petra’s Treasury building in Jordan and a series of national parks in the United States. It also keeps an “intangible cultural heritage” list of humanity’s most worthy creations, like the French baguette and opera singing in Italy.

Officials at UNESCO lamented the U.S. decision to withdraw but said the financial impact would be minimal.

“However regrettable, this announcement was anticipated, and UNESCO has prepared for it,” Audrey Azoulay, the organization’s director-general, said in a statement.

The United States stopped funding UNESCO in 2011 because of U.S. legislation requiring a complete cutoff of financing to any U.N. agency that accepted Palestine as a full member. The lack of money deprived UNESCO of nearly a fifth of its budget, forcing it to slash programs.

Then, in 2017, the Trump administration announced that it was withdrawing from the organization, citing anti-Israel bias. The United States remained a nonmember observer after that.

But Azoulay said UNESCO had enacted “major structural reforms” and diversified its funding sources over the past few years to offset declining U.S. contributions — including by relying more on voluntary funding from other member states and private contributors.

The U.S. financial contribution — which is expected to be about $75 million for 2025 — currently accounts for 8% of UNESCO’s total budget. Azoulay said the organization would face “reduced resources” but was not considering layoffs.

UNESCO runs educational programs and promotes sex education, literacy, clean water and equality for women. It also helps to set standards on issues like ocean protection and the ethics of artificial intelligence, and to protect cultural heritage and education efforts in conflict zones like Ukraine.

But the agency has been accused of political bias on matters related to Israel and Palestinians. Bruce cited “the proliferation of anti-Israel rhetoric within the organization” as a reason for the withdrawal.

Gideon Saar, Israel’s foreign minister, welcomed the decision.

“This is a necessary step, designed to promote justice and Israel’s right for fair treatment in the U.N. system, a right which has often been trampled due to politicization in this arena,” Saar said on social media.

UNESCO argued that the U.S. withdrawal would be harmful to work on promoting education about the Holocaust and fighting antisemitism. The organization also said that the decision ignored UNESCO’s push to curb the politicization of heritage issues, especially in the Middle East — an effort that the Biden administration and groups like the American Jewish Committee had praised when the United States rejoined.

“The reasons put forward by the United States to withdraw from the organization are the same as seven years ago, even though the situation has changed profoundly,” Azoulay said.

Rep. Gregory Meeks of New York, the top Democrat on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, called the decision “reckless” and “counterproductive.” UNESCO is the only U.N. agency with a mandate to promote Holocaust education, and China will “celebrate our empty seat” to gain advantage in setting AI standards, he said in a statement.

“Once again, this administration is undermining U.S. global leadership,” Meeks said.

It is the third time the United States has withdrawn from UNESCO. In 1984, during the Cold War, the Reagan administration left the agency. The U.S. later rejoined under President George W. Bush.